Will Lego produce a hardware hacker's idea of a set for girls? (photos)

Last year, Lego launched its Lego Friends initiative, a new project aimed at girls. But some Lego fans felt it stereotyped females, ignoring creative or engaged roles. Now, a New York hardware hacker named Limor Fried has come up with her own idea of what a Lego set for girls should be like. And if 10,000 people agree, Ladyada's Workshop, her design, could become a real Lego set, thanks to a program in which the global toymaker agrees to produce certain community-designed and -supported projects.

This is the full Ladyada's Workshop set, which features a pick-and-place machine, a laser cutter, a sewing machine, a soldering station, a computer, a microscope, and shelves of parts and packages. Adafruit Industries is Fried's open-source hardware development company.

A close-up of the Ladyada character in Fried's proposed set -- and her cat, Mosfet.

Ladyada's Workshop, like the real-life Adafruit Industries, has a pick-and-place machine.

Another element of the proposed set is a laser cutter.

These are the Ladyada's Workshop computer, microscope, and soldering station, done in Lego.

At Adafruit Industries, the open-source hardware development company Fried runs, there are shelves of parts and packages everywhere. So it should be no surprise that Ladyada's Workshop has such a shelf as well.

A sewing machine, from the proposed Ladyada's Workshop Lego set.

A sheet with instructions and a list of parts in the proposed Ladyada's Workshop set.